Elk hunting holds a special place in my heart because elk was the first animal I pursued as a hunter. I harvested my first cow elk at the age of 12; last fall — 18 years later — I would harvest my first bull elk.

It’s a bit of superstition that has no basis in fact, of course. Still, there are times when life sends us one sad event after another, which is what happened to me in recent weeks. This time, though the troubles came in a group of four.

Before starting kindergarten, I learned how to spell my last name. For a 5-year-old, stringing together the letters S-C-H-W-E-I-G-E-R-T can be a challenge. So, my parents helped prepare me for the task. Incidentally, my dad also taught my siblings and I how to say the alphabet backward as well as forward before entering kindergarten, but that’s another story.